NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)
--With Afghanistan's fragile
new government including armed
warlords, the nation's infrastructure
destroyed, and food and shelter
scarce, a sense of apprehension
is swirling through those
in the United States who remain
concerned about the well-being
of women there: What must
be done now? What is ideal?
What is possible? What is
likely? Which is more important:
Roads or schools? Food or
protection from warlords?

At a recent
conference convened at Barnard
College here, women leaders
from Afghanistan and a representative
of the U.S. State Department
examined these questions but
found little resolution. Full
participation in civil society
requires much more than permission
to lift the burqa, they agree.

The conference
was held one year after the
historic October meetings
in Bonn, Germany that led
to the formation of the country's
interim government. Scholars,
activists, doctors and journalists,
brought together by the New
York-based group Women for
Afghan Women, all focused
on current conditions, the
need for continued humanitarian
assistance, as well as vigilance
and support for the human
rights of Afghan women.

"We cannot
have peace without human rights
and, of course, women's rights
are human rights," said
Sima Samar, currently the
human rights commissioner
for Afghanistan.

Belquis Ahmadi,
the Afghanistan and Pakistan
program coordinator for the
International Human Rights
Law Group, said that many
of the positive changes for
women have taken place in
the capital of Kabul, but
emphasized that "Kabul
is not Afghanistan."

During a visit
to 28 villages in the country
this summer, Ahmadi saw people
so hungry they ate pellets
of grain that caused paralysis.
Young women, she said, continue
to be raped, abducted, or
forced to marry their abductors
or soldiers. The suicide rate
is high, she noted.

"Girls
commit suicide to escape marriage
to warlords. There will be
no peace unless the warlords
are disarmed."

Hangama Anwari,
an activist and law professor
at Kabul University, said
Afghan women are not aware
of their rights and are still
being imprisoned for adultery.
"Women suffer in prison
although they have done nothing
wrong, but there are not enough
public defenders," she
said. "Although Islam
gives them equal rights, a
woman abused in the home does
not realize she can turn to
the legal system."

Another woman
who spent the summer in the
rural areas of Afghanistan,
Helena Malikyar, a doctoral
candidate in Middle East Studies
at New York University, emphasized
that the women needed mundane
but vital assistance: the
clearing of land mines, the
rebuilding of roads, and better
hospitals and clinics, because
their children are dying of
"perfectly curable"
diseases. She added that women
were still not safe by any
measure from the warlords
carrying guns.

U.S. Official
Says It's Better for Warlords
to Be in Afghan Government
'Than Outside, Causing Mayhem'

Donor nations,
at a meeting in Tokyo in January,
pledged $4.5 billion in reconstruction
aid for Afghanistan, but Afghanistan
Foreign Minister Abdullah
Abdullah, in a recent conference
pushing the United States
to follow through on its efforts
to rebuild his country, said
some 70 percent of that was
designated for humanitarian
organizations and that some
of it was in the form of credit
rather than grants. In October,
Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf
Ghani said the government
needs up to $20 billion over
the next five years to rebuild
the country and end its dependence
on foreign aid.

The United States,
as part of the Tokyo meeting,
promised $297 million in aid
for this year and has provided
more than that amount, congressional
aides said. But the amount
of long-term U.S. aid is still
being debated. The House this
year passed a four-year, $1.15
billion aid package. The Senate
has been pushing for a larger
amount, and the aides said
they are near compromise to
provide $425 million a year
over four years.

Daria Fane,
the U.S. State Department's
coordinator for Afghanistan
Women's Issues, faced hostile
questioning at the conference
not only about the numbers
of civilians killed by U.S.
bombings, but also about the
presence of warlords in the
current government.

She expressed
her regret about the deaths
and defended the warlords'
presence.

"It is
better to have warlords in
the government rather than
outside, causing mayhem,"
she said.

Afghan political
activist Fatima Gailani replied
that if the United States
"cut off their funding
today, tomorrow, they would
be nobodies." She also
argued that all improvements
for women must be framed within
the context of Islam.

"If we
talk about secularism today,
we will lose it all,"
Gailani said, adding that
Afghan women need to be educated
about what their rights are
under Islam, especially in
light of the elections scheduled
for next year. "If we
don't get a proper place for
women, we are doomed,"
she said.